Periodically someone tries to buy an unpowered craft and moor it in the Bay for commercial purposes. Only historic structures like the aircraft carrier in Alameda are allowed to stay. But it is difficult to remove them. It takes a complicated process, and the politics are difficult. Google the Art Ship for the last time this played out.

I think an even bigger question is what is its purpose. Some paranoia exists about it being a center for gathering data of internet and cell phone users. Seems odd to me that it would be an "education facility" as Google described it. I see no purpose for an education facility in the middle of the bay, when plenty of commercial space is available and cheap in the city.

Google needs a permit from the regional Bay Conservation and Development Commission to moor a barge for any length of time in the bay, and the idea of a floating retail store could put the project in very choppy political water.

"A floating retail store that is not a bay-oriented enterprise would probably make a lot of jaws drop at a commission meeting," commission executive Larry Goldzband said when we told him of the newly surfaced Turner Construction document.

Although Google's lawyers have notified him three times in the past six weeks that it is continuing its barge construction at Treasure Island, Goldzband said, the company hasn't been forthcoming about its intentions.

"We have told them we don't want to wait a heck of a lot longer because ... the public needs to know what Google is doing," Goldzband said.

Riptide--have you read much about Brin? Interesting article in the last New Yorker about driverless cars and the evangelical world view they (Google Execs.) have about their company. Don't show me no stinking rules, I'm here to save the world! Bet against them getting a permit. Give odds.

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